Conversations about Teaching and Learning

Why a DCAL blog?

At our annual DCAL retreat this summer (an informal affair held in DCAL) we discussed how we might better disseminate literature and ideas about teaching to the Dartmouth community: should we generate a bulleted list of key articles and books?, should we focus on a single topic or try to cover all topics?, what about ideas from conferences and other sources? It was Sarah Horton who suggested we consider a blog. While skeptical at first, we eventually came around to the idea. Thanks to Sarah, we’re going to give it a try!

The purpose of this blog is to share ideas and information about teaching. We hope it will be a collaborative effort with lots of blog authors and commenters. So if you attend a conference, try something in your classroom, read an article or book, or have something to share related to teaching or learning please chime in!

The DCAL Team

Focus on Learning

I struggled with where we should we start with the DCAL blog - there are so many possible topics. Eventually, I decided to focus on learning...the theory being that if we understand how students learn we might be able to better understand how to teach.

One of the key publications related to learning is How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School, which is available online or stop by DCAL to borrow a copy.

How People Learn identifies the following three key findings about learning: 

1. Students come to the classroom with preconceptions about how the world works. If their initial understanding is not engaged, they may fail to grasp the new concepts and information that are taught, or they may learn them for purposes of a test but revert to their preconceptions outside the classroom (How People Learn, 2000).     

   Fish is Fish by Leo Leonni is used in How People Learn to illustrate how preconceptions affect learning. This is a children’s book (I read it to my little people – stop by DCAL to borrow a copy of the book; you can even borrow my little people if you need an audience) but it does a wonderful job of illustrating preconceptions. So the story goes… a tadpole and a fish become friends. The tadpole grows (into a frog it turns out) and leaves the pond to explore. Upon returning to the pond, he describes to his friend the fish what he has seen. Here is what the fish envisions when the frog describes a cow:

 

Teaching Implications: Teachers must draw out and work with the preexisting understandings that their students bring with them (How People Learn, 2000). So how can we do this?... I generally give a quiz or survey on the first day (not for a grade); simply asking them if they understand certain topics doesn’t seem to work, I have to get them to work through some problems. Another method, which is used by Physics Professor Eric Mazur at Harvard University, is to intersperse lectures with conceptual questions (or ConcepTests) and then have the students individually and in groups answer and respond to the questions. ConcepTests (a collection of conceptual questions that have been developed and tested by experts) are available in a growing number of disciplines including Physics, Biology, Chemistry, Geosciences, and Engineering – just do a search on “ConcepTest." Other ideas? What have you tried in your classroom?  

 

2. To develop competence in an area of inquiry, students must: (a) have a deep foundation of factual knowledge, (b) understand facts and ideas in the context of a conceptual framework, and (c) organize knowledge in ways that facilitate retrieval and application (How People Learn, 2000).  

Teaching Implications: Teachers must teach some subject matter in depth, providing many examples in which the same concept is at work and providing a firm foundation of factual knowledge.

The main point to me here is that we, as teachers, need to organize information around main concepts; students will have an easier time remembering the facts if they are tied to a few key concepts rather trying to remember an array of random facts. How People Learn stresses that students need facts and information but that it needs to be well connected (research shows that experts are not necessarily “smarter” but have better access to a larger knowledge-base). I think back to some of my high school History classes where I was asked to memorize a whole lot of information and dates that didn’t seem to be connected in any way – I remember very little… Nothing against History but it didn’t work for me. I’m sure History is being taught more innovatively now than way back when I was in high school. Maybe I’d actually enjoy it now!

I also believe that it is okay to have students jump in and try a “real” or complex problem before they have ALL of the facts. If students get interested in a more complex problem before they have all of the facts maybe they’ll be interested enough to search for and learn the facts they need (and thus better remember them). This is one of the ideas behind problem-based learning. What I think we do to often, myself included, is try to “cover” all of the basic material before having the students tackle a problem when maybe we should try the reverse - start to tackle the problem and then learn the facts. At a seminar at Dartmouth last fall, Professor Ken Bain, author of What the Best College Teachers Do, illustrated this point by asking the audience to remember the following series of numbers: 1,4,9,1,6,2,5,3,6,4,9. See how you do: Read the list, look away, and try to recall all of the numbers. Only physics professor, John Thorstensen, was able to remember the numbers but that was because he figured out the pattern – leave it to a physicist! Professor Bain then told everyone that the list of numbers was simply the squares of 1 through 7 – it was much easier to remember the list once we understood the concept (don't you agree?). This is a pretty simplified example but tries to show that if we cram a bunch of random facts into students’ heads without connecting them to something relevant they will forget them quickly.

3. A “metacognitive” approach to instruction can help students learn to take control of their own learning by defining learning goals and monitoring their progress in achieving them (How People Learn, 2000).  

So what does a "metacoginitive" approach mean… In “The Impending Revolution in Undergraduate Science Education” (an article I’d recommend as a starting place for thinking about learning - for science, math, and engineering folks at least), Robert DeHaan recommends finding ways to get students to select thinking strategies deliberatively and to plan, monitor, and evaluate thinking processes. As with all education, there is no one right answer here, I think we all need to think about our discipline and try to figure out what works for us. What have I tried?… if I work an example in class, I try to explain in detail why I make certain decisions or show alternative approaches. I’ve also tried having the students explain their thought process (either in class or documented along with their homework). Journals used by the students to document their learning process are also used by many instructors. What have you tried?

---

I hope this gives you some ideas - it is meant as a start… I’ve listed the key findings from How People Learn but there is much more information available in the complete document, which is separated into four parts. Part I of How People Learn is an introduction, Part II focuses on the learners and learning and Part III focused on the teachers and teaching (with examples of how to design learning environments and specific examples of effective teaching in History, Mathematics, and Science), Part IV outlines future directions for the science of learning. How People Learn is available online or stop by DCAL to borrow a copy.

Another great resource on learning is James E. Zull’s book called The Art of Changing the Brain: Enriching the Practice of Teaching by Exploring the Biology of Learning. This book is very easy to read even if you are not a biologist (okay I admit I skimmed some of the biology-heavy sections but I  still got a lot out of the book). DCAL has copies of Zull's book if you wish to borrow one.

And Robert L. DeHaan’s article, "The Impending Revolution in Undergraduate Science Education," provides a wonderful overview of scientific teaching (teaching based on cognitive science research; some also call this evidence-based teaching) that is rich with references to additional reading. It is geared toward teaching science but non-science disciplines should find at least the first several sections useful.

Vicki

 

Conference Ideas - Fall 2007

I attended two conferences this fall and I’d like to share with you some of what I learned. 

---

POD Network 32nd Annual Conference

This year’s Professional and Organizational Development (POD) conference drew over 750 participants to discuss “Purpose, Periphery, and Priorities.”   Participants included faculty and administrators from colleges and universities across the US and as far as Japan and New Zealand.  The POD network has a very active listserv and is a very supportive community.

1. Affective Domain in Teaching and Learning

We all know that students have a lot more on their minds than the courses we’re teaching, but how often do we think about what our students and colleagues are feeling and how their values and motivation are underlying the conversations we have?

A workshop on “Motivations & Attitudes: The Affective Domain in Teaching & Learning” introduced “dilemmas” as a tool for engaging faculty in discussions of the affective domain in their teaching.  Faculty usually focus their teaching on the cognitive domain (comprehension, analysis) and often do not think about how the affective domain (motivation, feelings, values) influences learning.  The following dilemmas, which were discussed in the workshop, are available along with other dilemmas and more information about the affective domain from Carleton College’s Science Education Resource Center’s professional development project “On the Cuting Edge” (Click on Affective Domain):

* "Fixation on Grades" describes a faculty member struggling to motivate students to learn.
* "Irrecoverable Failure" describes a mismatch in student and faculty expectations.
* "Working in Groups" describes a student who is struggling with group work and would prefer to go it alone.
* "We've Always Done It This Way" describes a faculty member who is resistant to change.
* "Sermon of the Rocks" describes a peer mentor observing a faculty member and needing advice.

This workshop reinforced that active learning not only helps to engage students in the concepts and processes of the course but also engages the affective domain.  Even holding class in a renovated room with walls that aren’t plain white helps to engage students (see figure 9 in this report on classroom design: http://profcamp.tripod.com/ClassroomDesign/IdealClass.html)

2. Diversity Case Studies

The Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning (CIRTL), a  multi-institutional project focused on the STEM disciplines and funded by the National Science Foundation, has many resources available on their website based on their three pillars: Teaching-as-Research, Learning Communities, and Learning-through-Diversity.  In addition to guidebooks on topics such as creating a collaborative learning environment and developing instructional materials, they also offer diversity resources including case studies and a resource book, Reaching All Students.  These are available for download at www.cirtl.net

Another diversity resource you may find interesting is a collection of Hidden Bias Tests developed by psychologists at Harvard, the University of Virginia and the University of Washington.  Do you have implicit associations or biases based on gender, race, or some other attribute of which you may not be aware?  When I attended the "Convocation on Maximizing the Potential of Women in Academe" a few years ago, even a room full of women scientists showed a bias against women in science! For those of you not familiar with the final report from the committee hosting the convocation, Beyond Bias and Barriers: Fulfilling the Potential of Women in Academic Science and Engineering is available to read online or you can borrow my copy.

If you are interested in case studies, Dartmouth has our own set of case stories based on interviews with Dartmouth students.  They are available on the DCAL publications site.

3. Problem Solving

A session on “Making Problem Solving a Priority” explored alternative problem types.  We began by discussing the differences in how experts and novices organize and use their knowledge for solving problems. (Chapter 2 of How People Learn is about how experts differ from novices.)  We then discussed using alternative problems to help students move from novice towards expert.  Problem posing, where students are asked to generate a problem that could be solved using a given concept, is one example of an alternative problem.  A “jeopardy problem” provides students a diagram, graph or equations and asks them to come up with a scenario that can be solved with the information provided.  Most of the literature on alternative problems is physics-based, but the presenter assured us these types of problems work well in other disciplines too!

I have a handout with examples and lists of resources in my office at DCAL (102 Baker-Berry Library) if anyone wants to learn more about alternative problems.   

---

NEFDC 2007 Fall Conference

I also attended the New England Faculty Development Consortium 2007 Fall conference.  My understanding is that this regional event keeps growing and attracting people from places farther from New England.  There were over 500 attendees this year.  The complete conference agenda is online and the presentations will be posted soon if they are not there already: http://www.nefdc.org/events.htm.

The keynote presentation on student success was given by George Kuh, director of the Center for Postsecondary Research, which hosts the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) and related research surveys.  A theme of this talk was that student engagement can lead to success and practices such as active and collaborative learning, high expectations, a supportive campus environment, and respect for diverse learning styles help increase student engagement.  A point of interest to me was that the NSSE survey found that “student engagement varies more within than between institutions.”  I guess I shouldn't be surprised that individual faculty members and courses make more impact than the college itself.

You also may be interested in some of the resources I was reminded about during various sessions:

1. L. Dee Fink has many publications available on his website, including “ A Self-Directed Guide to Designing Courses for Significant Learning” which was adapted for service learning courses and described by Keving Keraney, Associate Professor & Director of Service-Learning at Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences.


2. Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs), such as a one-minute paper or think-pair-share, are useful tools for “AEM Learning: Active, Engaged, and Measured.”  Angelo & Cross’s book, Classroom Assessment Techniques, has numerous suggestions for these simple, in-class activities that give immediate feedback.  Donna Qualters from Suffolk University suggested adding CATs to your syllabus before the course begins so you can get feedback from your students throughout the term during her talk on AEM. You can learn more about CATs on the National Teaching & Learning Forum’s website: http://www.ntlf.com/html/lib/bib/assess.htm.


3. I attended a session presented by Cassandra Volpe Horii and Adam G. Beaver from Harvard’s Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning.  They use case stories to talk about challenges that could arise during Faculty/TA consultations.   I have the cases we discussed and many of their other resources are available online or can be ordered.  DCAL has copies of their videos and corresponding books on “Race in the Classroom: The Multiplicity of Experiences” and  “Women in the Classroom: Cases for Discussion.”  Feel free to borrow these if you are interesting in using video case stories to generate discussion. 

---

Going to conferences is a great way to get ideas and (even more important to me) meet new colleagues!  Part of the fun is coming back and sharing what I’ve learned.  If you’ve got questions about anything I’ve mentioned here or are thinking about attending one of these conferences next year, please get in touch with me or comment on this post.  Thanks! 

Cindy